Various manually operated grass trimming shears have been proposed heretofore and are commercially available for trimming grass, weeds, and other plant life growing near the ground.
Typical of such grass shears is the type including a stationary blade coupled to a short handle. A movable blade is pivotally mounted on the stationary blade for selectively bringing associated cutting edges of the blades into moving point contact engagement with one another to effectuate shearing action of the blades. An actuating lever is mounted on a base of the handle and connected to the movable blade by a linkage such that when a user squeezes the lever toward the handle, the linkage transmits the pivoting motion of the lever to the movable blade causing the blade to pivot toward the stationary blade and cut any grass or weeds therebetween. Prior art shearing devices are also known in which the stationary blade is rotatable with respect to the support member and a releasable spring finger/detent latching mechanism provided for releasably locking the stationary blade in one of three cutting positions, namely a horizontal position, a vertical position, and an intermediate angled position.
All of such known prior art shearing devices, however, are difficult to use by individuals having back problems or those confined to a wheelchair since the short handle requires the user to bend in order to trim grass and weeds near the ground.